In describing the arduous yet fun task of making a stop motion film, I must start at what I feel is the most integral of parts, the set and materials.
Post-production
Stop motion opens up a million possibilities, even if I could only think of five, for creating a make believe world. It was a daunting decision to make. The colors, textures, and figures are the viewer’s doorway into another world. I spent most of my time experimenting with different materials in an attempt to evoke a emotionally tinted atmosphere.
The fact my poem was in Arabic and the film will be screened to a primarily English speaking audience was central. I decided on a more literal interpretation of the poem.
I made sure that there was enough direct information conveyed. I decided it was important for the film to revolve around a masculine gold-hued clay figure due to the subject matter of the poem. because I wanted the viewer to know the poem was specifically talking about a man and his life. I then stuffed the film with symbolism in reference to the poem.
The most significant are:
– Drumming and sparseness of the images
– drab and muddy color
– coming and going back into the clay
– varying focus of the images and the ill-defined figure
I did not leave much time for editing. I wanted to synchronize with a lot of things with the music and to a certain extent I succeeded. Every series of images corresponds to each line of the film. I had fun syncing the most dramatic parts of the music with the images.
When workshop-ing I felt I had been successful in conveying the emotional content, but I have to give credit to the literalism in the film. I do desire to further revise the film taking into consideration pointers from my fellow filmmakers.
